PNP-SOSIA to intensify screening, application process for security guards after Parañaque ops

The Philippine National Police - Supervisory Office on Security and Investigation Agencies (PNP-SOSIA) on Friday said it would intensify its screening and application procedures for security guards as those killed in an operation in Parañaque City were licensed security guards.

"'Yung tatlo na 'yun ay confirmed na licensed security guards and mas lalo pa namin paigtingin ang mga requirements na dapat nilang i-submit tulad ng clearance from the Directorate for Intelligence, clearance from the National Police Clearance at NBI clearance among other things... mas lalo namin hihigpitan ang mga requirements na dapat nila isubmit," SOSIA director Police Colonel Sidney Villaflor said.

Villaflor said the SOSIA found out that the latest approval of their licenses was two years ago and those will expire by next year.

PNP Deputy Chief for Operations Police Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar said authorities are checking how the suspects became security guards. He said the matter has been a challenge for SOSIA as this should be prevented.

"Ito ngayon 'yung challenge natin sa CSG SOSIA na maiwasan ito... even though alam natin na talagang sinadyang pumasok doon for purposes na maka access sa establishment," Eleazar said.

A police report stated that authorities were just about to issue a warrant of arrest against Bensaudi Sali, who was supposedly a combatant of the Abu Sayyaf, in Barangay Don Bosco last June 26.

Sali and his cohorts supposedly resisted arrest which then resulted in an encounter. Sali and other suspects, named as Merhama Abdul Sawari, Rasmin Hussin, and Jamal Kaliming, were all killed. They were tagged as financial conduit of the Dawlah Islamiya.

Authorities are verifying information that the killed suspects were linked to the ISIS group. — Anna Felicia Bajo/RSJ, GMA News